Recipe: scalding milk for bread and cake yeast equivalent

Milk needs to be scalded in order to assure a quality loaf of bread. There is an unknown consituent within milk that will weaken gluten. This constituent is likely one of the whey proteins acting somewhat as a protease. Scalding denatures it. If not done, the loaf will have a course structure and decreased volume from that bread made from dough with scalded milk. Generally, it is assumed the milk has reached 92C. If you don't have a thermometer, one can look at the surface and see if a thin film is forming. Source: Oregon State University

The scalding step also was necessary before pasteurization of milk to kill pathogens in raw milk so you will still see it listed in older recipes where the step may no longer be needed. Another reason for scalding is to remove enzymes that may prevent the milk from thickening in recipes that need it too. If you would like to eliminate that step in any recipe and are using pasteurized milk I suggest trying the recipe with and without scalding the milk and see if you notice any differences in the results.

Regarding cake yeast. Here is info from Red Star Yeast:
CAKE YEAST is fresh yeast. For traditional baking, an ounce of cake yeast will rise approximately 6 cups of flour. It can also be used in a bread machine; 2/3 ounce of cake yeast will rise 3 to 3 1/2 cups of flour.

One cake yeast equals one package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast.

I hope that's a help,

Betsy

In reply to:

Could you please tell me what scalded milk is and is two cake of yeast the same as two individual packets of dryed yeast. this problem may be due to different countrys thanks cheryl australia